RICK STEVES!!!!!!!!

We started our day with our morning walk through the tight little lanes and returned for our prepared breakfast. If ever you come to Tavira you really need to stay at the Calcada Guesthouse. Andy and Tamsin make you feel very welcome and they share all sorts of good information about the town.
So after breakfast we walked out to Quatros Aguas again and this time we took a ferry over to Ilha Tavira to the beautiful beach. Miles and miles of sand and water and we had a good hour and a half basking in the heat until the cold Atlantic winds turned up again and drove us off the beach to the nearest bar and a half litre of sangria. We thought maybe the winds would abate if we drank enough sangria but it didn't work. So we a beat a hasty retreat back to Tavira.
We took a little down time on the roof patio at our place and then headed out for our last dinner in Tavira. We had Os Arcos picked out as a typical Portuguese restaurant and after a bit of a wait and a stroll it opened its doors to us. We settled down with the menu and made our choice of drink, starter and main course and after awhile we were drinking our rosé wine, eating our olives and bread, munching on our salads and figuring out the best way to eat the sardines and swordfish. As I'm focusing on cleaning up my last morsels of sardine, I hear Mary say, "That's Rick Steves!", loud enough for everyone in the restaurant to hear including Rick Steves, who was standing just behind me at the counter getting information for the update of his book on Portugal. Well, he came over to talk and right away I asked if I could get a picture of him beside Mary and how she was such a big fan. This whole time Mary is awestruck (this is her travel guru) and when he goes over to her side she starts talking about how she uses his books to help plan her trips and he should really add the Calcada Guesthouse to his recommendations for Tavira and she has all his DVDs.....until Rick finally said we're going to miss our photo-op, and Mary turned to the camera....as you can see from her expression she was a little overwhelmed by the whole situation. Anyways he went away and later came back and talked a bit more with us. He just came from Selema where we go to next and he is going to Sevilla where we just came from. (I think he wanted to make sure he was going in the opposite direction from where Mary was going).
Anyways, needless to say, this has made Mary's trip to Spain and Potugal complete. I'm sure she won't sleep much tonight.

"Keep traveling"

K & M

Location:Calçada de Dona Anna,Tavira,Portugal

Mary in Love

Mary loves Tavira! It's a beautiful, sleepy little town. After our bus trip we got out and optimistically set out to find the Calcada Guesthouse, only 10 minutes from the bus station. All we had to do was find Calcada St. and then find #12. Turns out Calcada isn't the name of the street it is a street and there are calcadas all over the place. We figured this part out after about 10 minutes of rolling our suitcases up, over and around along bumpy calcadas(which are actually small cobblestones, aka Portuguese pavement). Finally after about 20 minutes we decided to leave me with the luggage in the main square and Mary headed in search of our place that is only "10 minutes from the bus stop". About 10 minutes later she returned having found our guest house,after knocking on the door of the wrong house(luckily no one answered) and with the help of a friendly older gentleman. The place is great, very quiet and friendly owners, Andy and Tamsin. Later we walked over the Roman Bridge and found a good restaurant with a big beer.

Today we hiked around a bit. We walked out to Quatros Aguas, where tomorrow we plan to catch a boat over to the beaches of Ihla de Tavira. To get there you have to walk past salt ponds and we saw some interesting birds. For our meal we went to the Casa Cota and had more traditional Portuguese fare up on their rooftop patio. We tried dorada grelhada (grilled gill head) and sangria, with salad and lots of olives. Lots of very good food...mutu bom.

We came back to our place for a little nap and then out for dessert and a drink. We found out that just because a cafe has pasteleria in its name doesn't mean it will have good pastry. In fact one bite showed that it was very dry and mouldy. We left soon after this discovery, not even finishing our wine (the glasses were a bit sketchy, too). Our second choice was much better and we finished off the evening with a little port.

Take care.
K & M

Location:Calçada de Dona Anna,Tavira,Portugal

On the Bus

We are now on the bus out of Seville. We are on an EVA bus, Sevilla - Algarve, that goes all the way to Lagos but we'll be getting out in Tavira. We're studying a little bit of Portuguese but I think it's a bit of a lost cause. We were just starting to be understand in Spain,too. Oh, well, keep the brain active.

We had a great second full day in Sevilla. We got up early again and made our way through the quiet streets until we found a little breakfast spot. After that we did a bit of a search for the post office so we could get a box to mail some of the stuff back as one of our suitcases was getting quite heavy and one of us can't carry it up and down stairs anymore.

After that we hopped on a public bus and made our way to the church of the Macarena where the statue of Mary, also known as the weeping Madonna, resides upon the altar except for the Festival of Corpus Christi when she is carried through the streets on her 1.5 ton float along with the 3 ton float of Jesus and Pontius Pilate washing his hands.
From there we took a bus back to the old town and toured through the Alcazar, a palace much like the Alhambra but smaller. The Christian king, Pedro, built it and lived in it with his mistress after he left his wife. The Mudejar (Arabs building for Christians) influence is strong in the architecture of the buildings. Some very calm rooms, if you can get away from all the tourists, and beautiful gardens.

In the evening we took in a Flamenco show at a small intimate hall, two dancers, a singer and a guitar player. All of them were very impressive in their effort and the way they played off and encouraged each other.

We finished the evening with a couple of tapas and a glass of wine.

In the morning we were up early again for our morning walk and later we made our way back to the post office to mail our parcel. On the way back we got caught in some major tour group "traffic jams".....supposedly Tuesdays are a major tour groups day. We made our way to the bus station, stored our bags for a few hours and did a final wander along the river and into the Triana district. Mary was able to find a pair of 8€ shoes.

And now we're mere minutes from the border into Potugal.

Adeus.

K & M

Malaga to Sevilla and an Evening With Toro

We had an uneventful train trip from Malaga to Sevilla, just the kind I like. No coughing, sneezing or sniffling...sorry about all that whining in the last blog.
We got into Sevilla and found our Patio de las Cruces hotel in the Santa Cruz barrio. We settled in and then did a Rick Steves directed tour through the barrio. After this we went on a hunt that Alan and Maureen Wooten had suggested, the San Telmo. We walked for over an hour getting directions along the way and finally came upon it. We had a salad along with two meat tapas and a half order of their special potatoes...a couple of glasses of wine, as well.

This morning we got up early and took a stroll, trying to get pictures with no crowds around. We stopped off for a quick breakfast and then came along another church parade. No floats this time, just church members and a community band marching and playing through the streets.

After that we did some more strolling until we came to the bull ring. We had a guided tour and found out lots of interesting bull fighting information and traditions. After this we found the Plaza de Espana, seemingly a gathering place for a lot of families on a Sunday afternoon. More strolling along the other side of the river and then we thought...we're in Sevilla on a Sunday night, there's a bull fight....let's see if we can get some tickets. So we got some really good seats from a scalper for a more than fair price and went to a bullfight, something neither of us thought we would do. But it was okay. Very colourful and it was fun sitting with all the Spanish watching something very much in their culture. We only stayed for half of the bulls, that was plenty and we'll probably never go to another one (maybe one in Portugal where they don't kill the bull.

Tomorrow we're planning to do another day in Sevilla, a very beautiful and interesting city....oh yeah, we also visited the cathedral and walked up the Giralda Tower which had great views of the city.

Take care.

K & M

Location:Calle de las Cruces,Seville,Spain

We Will, We Will Rock You

We took our bus trip to Gibraltar today. We were last to be be picked up so we weren't able to get seats together for the two hour trip because there were only two free seats left. We didn't buy the tour that was included but we did have the Spanish tour guide on the bus. I'm also discovering that I'm becoming a real germophobe and seem to always get a cougher right behind me. But today it was even worse. I was surrounded by three cold-filled Glaswegians, one beside me and two behind, who seemed determined to share their misery with me by coughing, sneezing and snorting their way to Gibraltar and back. I found myself leaning farther and farther into the aisle to avoid the flying particles. To make it even more enjoyable our "guide" decided she would talk non-stop for the last hour letting us know that it wasn't too late, "ladies and jenalmen", to join their tour of the rock. She also gave us lots of shopping tips where you can find the "cheaperest" price and how we are going through customs and "just in case you forgot, ladies an jenalmen, you can still.......". On and on.

We finally got to the rock, took the cable car to the top and walked down through the Barbary apes. The views were spectacular and it was fun watching the apes harass all the people. As you walk down you're always waiting for one of them to drop down out of a tree or off a rock and attack. Mary said it was like planet of the apes but in miniature. We saw one get to a guys pack and undo the zipper and another guy told us how one actually got his hand in his pant pocket. Luckily we did nothing to tempt them and we had no nasty encounters.

After the day we did the return trip...hack, hack, snort, achoo......

We finished the day with a stop and some food and sangria at the Benalmadena Marina, then walked back along the beach to our place.

Mañana, Sevilla.

K & M

Back in Mijas Again

Had a real lazy day around the pool and then a short hike along the beach. Later we arranged to meet up with Tina and Paul, the Irish newly wed couple we shared a taxi with (turns out that our room balconies are side by side)to go up to Mijas for dinner. We had a leisurely stroll through the town on a beautiful evening and then finished with an excellent dinner on a terrace with great views.
Tina and Paul invited us back for a cup of tea (Irish tea bags, Spanish water) and after a pleasant visit and a sharing of addresses and emails we ended our evening.
Today it's off to Gibralter.

K & M





















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Location:Avenida de la Costa del Sol,Benalmádena,Spain